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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  January 16, 2013 6:00am-8:00am PST

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wants some victories, that's why they're already talking about executive orders. they understand that even things like the assault rifle ban is not going to get through. >> 19 and 20 children killed puts it at a whole nother level. >> that's true. but how long does that last or people feel that emotionally? john, this never happens, i'll give you the final word. >> an interesting day because mark sanford announced he's running for congress. >> and his wife is not. >> left office in 2009 because of an affair. it strikes me as interesting on this day when we talk about lance armstrong whether he can be rehabilitated. >> apples and oranges. >> this guy is running for congress and he was chased from office and now he's back and running for office. >> he sued people that called him out. >> we'll see. that's a very interesting question. he has a good chance. in just a few hours at 11:55 eastern a.m., of course, president obama will announce his new gun control agenda. we know how that some family members from the newtown, connecticut, will be joining the
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president. you want to stay with cnn for special coverage of that announcement. it begins with wolf blitzer at 11:55 a.m. eastern time right here on cnn. tomorrow we'll be talking with texas congressman rahim castro, new york congressman peter king, and actor gabriel mock, the star of the hit show "suits." >> i love that show. >> "cnn newsroom" begins with carol costello. good morning. >> good morning. happening in the "newsroom" -- fireball in london a deadly crash as a helicopter slams into construction crane, new details on what may have caused this frightening accident. under the gun, much of the eastern united states, from louisiana to maine getting rain, snow, and ice, this is just the beginning! an arctic blast plunging south. champion cash, a startling look at the money, the players and the influence s.e.c. schools spending the most three times what most people earn in a year. it's an eye-opening look at the athletes and the almighty dollar. plus this -- >> i don't know if i want this
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guy to be the face of austin anymore. >> outrage that the cyclist and the confession and now will cycling be booted out of the summer olympics because of lance armstrong? armstrong? "newsroom" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >p go good p much f carol costello. r p we begwe begin thi spectaculp spectacular and g helicopter crash in the heart of london. it hit a construction crane high atop a building shrouded in fog and the wreckage rained down on rush hour traffic below. zain verjee is in london with all the latest details. good morning, zain. >> good morning, carol. can you imagine going to work, it's a typical day, cold, foggy, rainy in london and something like this happens? well, thousands of commuters were facing this exact situation.
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thick fog, plumes of smoke and fireballs raining down in lines from the sky. basically what happened was a helicopter went off course, you know, police are going with the theory, one of them at least, the issue of poor visibility at that time, crashed into a crane, got its rotor blades snapped off and then took part of the crane with it and then just came crashing down onto the ground onto one of the main roads that you're looking there in the video, and it apparently landed right on top of two cars. police are saying two people are dead. 13 are injured. one critically. and a man they say ambulance services pulled someone out from a burning car. so, police are saying, carol, this is a total miracle that it wasn't worse. i mean, this was at, like, 8:00 a.m. local time and there's traffic, but an hour later there would have been way more people there, carol? >> that's just amazing. and just to make it clear, terrorism was not involved. it appears to be a tragic
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accident. >> police have ruled that out. they are looking in to what exactly happened obvious-. one of the things that we immediately sparked off was the belief that it was terrorism, and right off the fact that mi-6 is located right in that area of vauxhall, i don't know if you've seen "sky fall" okay? but you know the scene on the thames where the building burst into flames on one part of the floor, that's exactly where mi-6 is. there are businesses and a major market and there and major housing developments and actually the u.s. embassy is moving to vauxhall, this is the location of the new embassy. at this time of day, too, carol, it was totally packed with commuters. think of penn station, right? that's a maybe thoroughfare and a main point where travelers coming into new york city will get off at. well, this is exactly the same thing. people were totally stranded. hundreds of people just decided to walk to work because there was no other option.
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one of the main issues right now, carol, is that crane. you know, remember during hurricane sandy the focus was on that crane in new york city? well, it's dangling dangerously right now. police are focusing on that area. they've cordoned it off and they are asking people just to stay away from that scene, so that's really what could potentially provide the greatest threat. >> zain verjee reporting live for us from london. concern about the airliner that is billed as the new future for air travel. japan's major airlines grounded their entire fleet of 787s, that's half of the dreamliners in service all around the world. and today's incident the crew reported battery problems and a burning smell. it's the latest in a series of incidents over the past ten days. those concerns had already prompted u.s. and japanese officials to conduct their own safety reviews. problems over the past week and a half include a battery fire, a braking problem and two fuel
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leaks. nippon airlines and japan airliners say they can return to service as early as tomorrow, but safety and production concerns are weighing on the american manufacturer. boeing stocks fell nearly 5% in premarket trading this morning. we'll have to wait until tomorrow night to hear exactly what lance armstrong had to say to oprah winfrey, but whatever he says in the tv interview it will not be enough for the world anti-doping agency. for armstrong to come clean with them, he would have to make a full confession under oath and tell all he knows about doping activities. then the group could reconsider its lifetime ban on armstrong. there's also this development, with far greater significance. an international olympic committee -- an international olympic committee member suggests that if armstrong implicates top cycling officials in widespread doping activities, the ioc could consider dropping the sport from the olympics. cnn's george howell is in
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armstrong's hometown of austin, texas. good morning, >> reporter: carol, good morning, my hometown as well and i actually worked here in austin some 12 years ago. i covered a big citywide celebration with lance armstrong. it was 2001, just after he won the tour de france three times, brought so many people together, some 15,000 people together if i remember correctly. it was a great celebration. here you had an athlete who, you know, not only inspired the world but he was also a cancer survivor and people took note of that. but now when you think about lance, you can't help but be disappointed and when you talk to people here in austin, you can tell that they are looking at him differently. >> well, he's an icon here, you know, people looked up to him, they admired him, but now they're going to kind of look at him maybe in a little negative light now, like, do we really want lance armstrong to be the icon of austin, texas? you know, a lot of people have that question in their mind now, you know, i don't know if i want
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this guy to be the face of austin anymore. >> reporter: you know, there's also a bike path here in austin. a lot's changed. there's a new bike path named after lance armstrong. there's the store, you know, that he co-owns, but, you know, some people are questioning whether that bike path should be renamed. people are thinking differently about him given what they expect to happen tomorrow when he will admit after years of denying it that he did take part, carol, in doping. >> george howell reporting live from austin, texas, this morning. tomorrow 3:00 eastern we'll have a half-hour special on why we cheat and we're not just focusing on lance armstrong. we'll take a look at everyone, alex rodriguez, barry bonds, everyone, or how about retired general david petraeus, why do we cheat? it's also going to be our "talk back" question so you can weigh in. keep that in mind for tomorrow for that half-hour special beginning at 3:00 p.m. eastern time.
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and this just in to cnn, fourth quarter earnings in full swing on wall street and this week we're hearing from the big banks, goldman sachs and jpmorgan reporting higher earnings before today's opening bell. alison kosik is digging in to those numbers for us, so let's start with goldman. >> okay, actually, let's start with jpmorgan. >> okay. >> because jpmorgan's going to catch your ear because i know you'll like that. you know that ceo jamie dimon had to take a huge pay cut, but besides that the company posted solid profits. jpmorgan made a profit of about $5.7 billion in the final three months of 2012, that's up more than 50% from a year ago. now, if you look at banks overall, they've actually outperformed the broader market in the last year. you look at what the kbw index is up 30% in 2012 compared to the s&p which was only up 13%. do you know what's driving the banks? the housing market recovery. certainly saw it with jpmorgan. new mortgages totaled $1.6
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billion, up 60%. the company slashed the amount of mon it holds in reserves to cover bad loans which means credit conditions are improving. as for jamie dimon, he is paying the price for last spring's trade gone bad in london, the infamous london wale trade that cost the company more than $6 billion, those were trades that were making big bets on complex derivatives, the company says dimon bears the ultimate responsibility, so guess what, the bank cut his total salary which includes his bonus, they cut it in half to $11.5 million. i know, poor jamie dimon. but do you know what, he made $23.5 million last year, so $11.5 million, what a pauper. >> i'm glad he won't have to apply for food stamps. goldman sachs, we'll touch on that before you go? >> okay, goldman had a strong finish as well. also benefiting from the housing recovery and the credit conditions that are getting better. goldman booking a profit of almost $3 billion and that's triple from a year ago.
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and despite what ceo lloyd blankfein called a challenging economic conditions for most of the year, goldman pretty much coming out very strong. what's most interesting with goldman, carol, and there's this shift going on from making money on trading and investment management to goldman getting most of its growth from lending money. you look at goldman shares, they recovered in 2012 from a really, really tough 2011. shares lost almost half their value in 2011, most of it coming after the summer debt ceiling debate. guess what? shares of goldman have gained 48% in 2012. the rally has continued this year. goldman sachs shares right now are up 2.5% in the premarket, carol? >> all right, alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. a huge winter mess stretches from maine to mississippi. there's a 40-mile backup in massachusetts. new prilosec otc wildberry
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13 minutes past the hour, time to check the top stories -- the u.s. house has approved spending more than $50 billion to help the northeast recover from superstorm sandy, despite the fact that 179 republicans voted against the measure. money will go toward repairing flood-damaged transit systems in new york and new jersey as well as cash grants directly to storm victims. the bill now goes to the senate. a nevada police officer is under a federal grand jury investigation after being caught on dash cam video kicking a man in the head who was in a diabetic shock. this happened in 2010. affiliate ksnv said the henderson, nevada, police sergeant was disciplined but did
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not lose his job and was not demoted and not charged. the victim settled his case with the city. in money news samsung has hit a mobile milestone. the electronics giant said it has sold 100 million phones and tablets from its galaxy "s" series. the newest flagship of the series, the gal saxly s-3 has sold 40 million phones alone. ice and snow makes travel difficult across many parts of the country. in louisiana dozens of accidents were reported and several roads closed because of freezing rain and low temperatures. chattanooga, tennessee, a car was crushed when a tree came crashing down because of strong winds. and in dallas, more than 170 flights were canceled due to freezing rain at destinations across the south. wintry weather stretches all the way to maine, though, parts of the northeast could see up to 6 inches of snow today. in a little more than two hours president obama and vice president joe biden will unveil their plan to fight gun
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violence. here's what we're expecting them to say -- according to an official familiar with the situation the president will press for a ban on high capacity magazines, purr for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, and request funding to treat mental illness as well as funding to enhance school safety. already the nra is on the attack before it's even seen the plan. the group released this ad which paints obama as an elitist hypocrite. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? mr. obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. protection for their kids and gun free zones for ours. >> it's a tough ad. dan lothian is at the white
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house. but i understand the president is fighting back with his own pr strategy because when he makes his big announcement he'll be surrounded by children who wrote letters to him begging for gun control. >> reporter: that's right. you know, we see the white house do this in the past, usually it's around a fiscal fight where the president's putting pressure on congress he'll be surrounded by families from across the country. well, in fact, the president, as you pointed out, will be surrounded by these young kids who wrote letters to the president in the wake of the connecticut shootings. in addition to that, though, a white house official confirming that the president will also be joined with some newtown families, families impacted by the newtown shootings at this event here today. so, clearly this is an effort by the white house to put pressure on lawmakers. as we've been pointing out, there are two tracks here that will take place, things that congress can do and things that the president plans to do on his own, so this is one way for the president to use the public to put pressure on congress, carol.
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>> okay. so, to this point the president can do things on his own. i'm a little confused, because yesterday the vice president joe biden mentioned 19 executive actions, but apparently that's not what we're going to hear today. so, what's going on? >> reporter: that's right. you know, that is a number that came up when he met with those democratic house members to talk about some of the proposals that he had been getting from these meetings that he held with a variety of people. and the white house this morning is staying away from any numbers, but insisting that the president is still looking to do things on his own through executive orders or executive action. i mean, clearly, this is something that is controversial. there are a lot of gun rights groups out there that are concerned about the president acting on his own and how that could impact their second amendment rights. but the president will be moving forward with some executive action. we will wait to see exactly what the details of that will be when he makes the announcement today,
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but white house spokesman jay carney saying that the president understands that there are limits to what he can do on his own within existing law. >> okay. so, i guess in a little more than 2 1/2 hours we'll know for sure. dan lothian reporting live from the white house. >> reporter: okay. >> and for today's event we'll have special coverage that will start at 11:45 a.m. eastern time. another change in the obama administration. cnn has learned secretary of the interior ken salazar will be leaving his post at the end of march. salazar told the president he expects to return to his ranch and family in colorado. salazar has served as secretary of the interior since 2009. a new nra ad going after the president. you saw it just a little while ago. some say that ad goes too far. is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? it's our "talk back" question today. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.
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now it's your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? personal now a new nra web ad makes no bones about it. want to take away our guns? we're going for the jugular. >> the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? mr. obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. >> normally presidential kids are off limits, but when it comes to second amendment rights nothing is sacred. nra president david keene told cnn the organization is mobilizing for a fight and
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engaging its members. this ad is just the start. our response to the president's reluctance to put armed guards in every school. >> i am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools. and i think the vast majority of the american people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem. >> that's the thing. by saying that president obama opened the door to the nra's latest salvo. if our elitist president's kids are protected by armed guards, why aren't yours? although the ad has prompted tweets, obama is so elitist! never gets stopped and frisked despite using drones to kill americans. and obama is so elitist! the planes can't fly over the white house but the condo board won't let me install a rocket launcher on my roof. but larry sabado tells me the nra ad is effective, it rallies its members to defeat the gun
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proposals and more importantly the ad supports an issue most americans agree with armed guards in schools and it creates plenty of buzz. still, most americans don't like the nra's tactics, in a "washington post"/abc news poll taken before the new ad, only 36% have a favorable impression of the nra's leadership. so, the "talk back" question for you today, is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? facebook.com/carolcnn. facebook.com/carolcnn. or tweet me @carolcnn. i'll be right back. (announcer) make mornings special,
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good morning. thank you so much for being with me, i'm carol costello, stories we're watching right now, in the "newsroom," stocks are poised to open lower when the bell rings on wall street in just about four minutes. investors weighing more earnings reports. jpmorgan and goldman sachs already reported earnings that beat expectations. ringing the bell, very, very soon are executives of russell indexes, a leading global index provider. in london, a fiery helicopter crash has killed two people and injured 13 others. the crash happened early this morning when the helicopter hit a construction crane atop a new luxury residential building killing the pilot and sending flaming wreckage onto the road below. the whole thing happened at the height of rush hour. police told cnn it's a miracle it wasn't worse. a bronx woman in new york
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indicted and accused of running a scam tied to the newtown massacre. prosecutors say 37-year-old noel alba posed as the aunt of a child killed at sandy hook elementary and solicited donations for a funeral fund. she's now chged with making false statements to the fbi. putting an end to gun violence in america, since the tragedy of sandy hook elementary school, we've heard talk of everything from executive actions to assault weapons ban to expanded background checks, but some say the answer could lie in one federal agency, the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms and explosives, the atf, it's part of the justice department and its mission includes preventing the illegal use and trafficking of firearms. but an agency that is so critical to gun regulation has been without a permanent director for six years. mike buochard is a former assistant director of the atf, he joins us from las vegas.
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good morning. >> good morning, carol. >> how is it possible that there's such an important federal agency doesn't have a director for six years? >> well, it's unusual. i'd never heard of a law enforcement agency not having a director for that long. particularly with the mission that atf has with highly political, a lot of sensitive issues, a lot of dangerous issues in an industry that they regulate and also where they try and prevent violent crime. >> so, what's been the big roadblock to appointing a permanent director? >> politics, quite frankly. i was still with atf when they proposed making it a senate-confirmed position. the career people in atf were all opposed to it. we knew basically what would happen. in fact, most of us said to the people who were trying to put the proposal together, we'll never get a director confirmed for this agency. and so far that's been correct. and it's just very difficult
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having acting people come in. they're all very well qualified, but what you need to look at is they all have other jobs, so doing such an important task, important job, leading such an important agency, part time is very, very difficult and dangerous. >> so, obama's nominee, i'll just throw a name out, he runs the atf chicago office. ehe was characterized by the nra as anti-gun. but you have to wonder these days what anti-gun means. what does it mean anymore? anything? i mean, you can be anti-gun if if you're against any gun regulation. >> right. and there is no definition. i've been termed anti-gun and i do consulting for the firearms industry. i consult and try and keep gun dealers out of trouble. but yet some of the people say i'm anti-gun because occasionally i'll talk about commonsense approaches to reduce gun violence. >> by some people, we mean the
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nra, the elephant in the room is the nra that's blocking the confirmations and it's the nra that is calling you and others anti-gun. >> without a doubt. and i just don't know why, you know, the president's nominee and other people who have been nominated including the first person that the president, president bush, put forward had been confirmed as a u.s. attorney and was in the republican party and they opposed him quite frankly because they said atf was too tough on gun dealers, so no matter who they put forward. >> right. there was an article in the "washington post" that said it's really -- it's not the federal government running the atf, it's the nra. would you agree with that? >> no, i don't think the nra is running atf. i think they have a say in who will run it, and quite frankly, having acting people rotate through every year or every two years, no one's running it. we're fortunate that career people, the civil service employees of atf, are the stable force in that agency. they've been able to keep the
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lid on things and trying to keep people on mission, but, again, they need a leader. they need somebody's who's connected to the administration who can stand out front and deal with the issues so they can go out and fight violent crime. >> and i know many people are saying what happened about in the atf, it's a messedup organization, maybe it doesn't need to be run by the government. >> well, again, "fast and furious" obviously people made mistakes, but quite frankly i think a lot of them were honest mistakes. people were trying to stop the flow of guns into mexico. they had tried a number of different tactics. quite frankly they were criticized for every tactic they used. i'm not defending what they did, but i can tell you that they were honest mistakes. people were trying to legitimately stop guns flowing to mexico. how they did it is in question, but, again, if they had a true leader, somebody who was in there looking at a vision,
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looking at it from the 30,000-foot view, you might not have had something like that happen. >> well, it is interesting that throughout this debate, gun control in this country and, you know, whether gunrunning is a big problem in this country, which, of course, it is, the atf has pretty much been left out of the conversation. >> that's true. you know, i'm part of a small group of former atf executives that have sent some recommendations to the vice president early on in his study. but it is odd, we see directors of other agencies, police chiefs, other things, but there's no one representing atf at the table and a lot of the things that went on -- >> go ahead. >> a lot of the things that went on in the '94 assault weapon ban are going to come to fruition again, and a lot of people who had the experience dealing with it, in '94, until 2004, have a lot to say and have a lot of history about the difficulties
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in trying to enforce some of those regulations. >> so, the federal agency, the gun police if you will, it just seems really odd. and it's a big problem and there's no permanent director and there doesn't seem to be any interest in really, like, pushing for one. >> it is odd. and quite frankly, you know, most of the former atf executives were pretty much offended that no senior atf person, perhaps they feel that would be a lightning rod in the room, but there's a lot of experience there, and if they're going to be charged with enforcing these regulations, they should sure as hell have a say in what's going to be proposed. >> mike bouchard, thanks so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. a former captain of the "costa concordia" cruise ship said he has no regrets, none whatsoever. he tells nbc news he understands why some people hate him for his role a year ago in the shipwreck
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in italy. remember? that killed 32 people, but he said it's wrong to think that he did not try to help after the luxury liner drifted off course. here's some of what he had to say here, quoting here -- people don't understand the ship is 58 meters wide so you don't have a chance to see who else is left on the other side and in the moment the floor started to become steeper, you have no other option. to die or to swim. so, i regret nothing. i'm joined now from london by cnn senior international correspondent dan rivers. are people, well, are people angry about these comments? they must be? >> it's going to inevitably inflame opinion in italy. there have been comments from him in the italian media, now on nbc. we here in cnn have certainly done extensive interviews with his lawyer several months ago, in line with what he said here,
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that he vehemently denies that it was his fault, that as he said in this, he took over from an officer who was in -- who was piloting the cruise liner. really just seconds before it hit the rock that he couldn't do anything. he denies fleeing the boat knowing that people were left on board. he says he didn't know how many people were left on board. and as you say there, you know, he says, i regret nothing. the option was to die or to swim and so he swamp. he talked about sharing in the pain of the families of the victims. but this is going to be really tough to hear for the people whose loved ones died on that ship and for those who profou profoundly trawm tiumatized by experience, and people that we interviewed who have the most awful, awful experience swimming for their lives, watching other people drown around them. >> so, he's up on charges.
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so, where do the court proceedings stand right now? >> well, probably the same as in america. it's a very lengthy process. he's facing charges not only of manslaughter but of various sort of navigation infractions and breaking the rules of the sea, if you like. it's been reported if he's found guilty on all of them, it could be 2000 years in jail. he's facing really serious charges. the ultimate trial could be a long way off. "costa concordia's" corporate position has been to try to distance themselves from this, to say that he was effectively a sort of rogue captain. we interviewed the ceo of the parent company, and that was very much the corporate position, was this was a -- this was a one-off. he was, you know, completely reckless in disregard for human life, and they believe that they have now put in reforms that
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would mean this could never happen again, including technology to track the position of the ship. so, if it veers off course, if they try to go close to an island like they did here to salute it, to wave to people on shore, immediately, they would be alerted in their hq and they'd be able to tell them to get back out to sea. >> dan rivers reporting live for us this morning, thanks. ratings on oprah winfrey's cable network haven't been so hot since they launched in 2011, but the two-part special this week with lance armstrong could change all that. find out who stands to profit the most. [ male announcer ] here's a word that could give you peace of mind. unbiased. some brokerage firms are. but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder -- isn't that a conflict? go to e-trade. we've g0t over 8,000 mutual funds
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since oprah winfrey launched her own cable tv network in 2011, she's only managed to draw a few really big audiences, her interview with rihanna drew 2.5 million viewers and then there was the conversation with whitney houston's daughter and now it's looking like the queen of talk may draw a huge audience with her exclusive sit-down with lance armstrong airs on thursday and friday nights, we're wondering how big could that audience be? a.j. hammer is the man to ask, good morning. >> good morning, carol. yeah, this is nothing but good news for oprah winfrey, the ratings for her network have
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been increasing steadily, and she's clearly proven she can still get the big interview that draws all those people even though she's moved her show to cable. this interview is going to attract such a big audience oprah decided to make the most of it, turned it into a two-part interview spread over thursday and friday nights. they are charging a premium for ad time had is reportedly nearly sold-out. and the speculation is she'll draw even more than the 3 1/2 million viewers than she did with the interview with bobbi kristina. her old syndicated show used to draw a much bigger audience. she used to average 6 million viewers a day. so, it's not the same, but it's still really good and it's a great trajectory for her network to be on right now. >> that's true. i guess you could look at the ad sales and try to figure it out, too. is there an uptick in them? >> well, yes, as i mentioned, at least in terms of the special. it's nearly sold out for this thing and they are getting
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bigger dollars for the time on this interview because, as you know, there's going to be huge, huge interest. it will garner a huge audience. and quite frankly, it could be one of the biggest audiences she's ever seen come to her network for a special interview. >> a.j. hammer, many thanks. the future of facebook may look a lot more like google. why some people think facebook's new graph search could change the way you use the internet. i think there's no more higher purpose right now than to take care of the folks that put themselves in harm's way to protect our freedoms. >> more than half a million folks have done more than one tour. so, that's a tremendous emotional and physical burden we put on our folks that's totally unprecedented. >> for acknowledging that, people are always going to have some effect. we just want them to be able to be better at making that transition back to civilized society and not carrying around
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that pain of war for the rest of their life. >> hi, i'm skip russo, clinical psychologist at the university of southern california institute for greater technologies. ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. make it worth watching. introducing the 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit.
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45 minutes past the hour. time to check our top stories. an oregon sheriff says he will not enforce any new federal gun control laws. sheriff tim mueller sent a letter to vice president joe biden telling him of that. he said thousands support his position on facebook. as you know, president obama has not announced any new laws yet. he won't announce any ideas for new laws for about two hours yet. world bank is backing off its prediction that the global economy will grow by 3% this year. the revised figure is 2% to 4%. officials largely blame the u.s. and europe for the drop. they said political squabbling over the fiscal glif and the upcoming debt ceiling debate pose big risks to the worldwide economy. the ongoing recession in the euro zone also a factor.
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and winter weather prompts a state of emergency. salt trucks ran all night long to prevent sleet and freezing rain from the roadways and almost a quarter inch of ice formed on power lines and heavy rain is now causing flooding. facebook's new search tool is surrounded by hype, but others think it might be a dude. it's called graph search and it's a way to search through your facebook network for answers. information google cannot access. you could look for restaurants your friends like, kind of like yelp or look for job connections like on linked-in or you can use it to find singles in your area. steven levy is the senior writer for "wired" magazine. steven, welcome. >> thank you. >> okay, you went to the facebook campus, experimenting with graph search. you interviewed mark zuckerberg. so, is this really as revolutionary as we're led to believe? >> well, it's very big for facebook. facebook has a couple things that people do all the time.
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they share photos and other things with friends. they have their own little personal scrapbook called a timeline which tracks where they are on facebook, and they think it will be the third big pillar and potentially it's the most lucrative of the three pillars because search advertising is the most, you know, successful form of revenue on the internet. >> to be clear, this is designed, though, for very specific searches. i tried to explain it, but i'm sure you can do it better. >> right. well, essentially what you're doing when you use graph search, you know, because it's sort of a somewhat obscure title is you're searching what facebook calls your social graph. but really what you're doing is you're doing a search for all -- in all the information that facebook has about you and the billion other people who have signed up for facebook. and there's all sorts of gems in that information you couldn't get at before and facebook is giving you access to it, then, so you can make the moment of your connections on facebook and
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maybe connections you haven't made yet. >> you know, i'm just thinking the last time a big announcement was made by facebook, and timeline, and you mentioned that and facebook people really weren't into that for a long time. >> well, what happens typically in facebook is they announce something, and people resist it. they say, well, what's this going to do to my privacy and then some people start using it and before you know it, it becomes part of the whole system there. now, some people say, oh, this is like the frog, you know, in the hot water, you know, it doesn't notice when it's boiling and before you know it, look what's happened to our privacy, but facebook tries to keep up with that by giving people more controls to control what other people can see about them in terms of the things they share there. and this is going to be another challenge for facebook users to say, well, wait a minute, what is this new way of exposing information mean in the terms of the way i've chosen to share it. so, i think everyone who uses facebook should take another look at their privacy settings
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and facebook's tried to make it easier for them to do that. >> okay. so, you interviewed mark zuckerberg. >> yeah. >> is there any gem you want to zuckerberg. is there any gem you want to share? >> he's incredibly excited about this. he wants to emphasize this is not direct competition with google. both facebook and google have their individual missions. search works in different ways for each of those companies. on the other hand, the search you make on google is not a search on facebook and vice versa. what facebook what is some information that goggle doesn't and that makes facebook insane. >> steven levy, thank you very much. >> thank you. our talk back question today, is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? ♪ let's go. ♪
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my facebook page is on fire. thank you very much. talkback question today, is the nra leadership on target or out of touch? this from john. out of touch! this is 2013 not 1776. this from sheen, would i feel better knowing a trained professional is guarding my child in her school? yes, i would. isn't that why the president's children are guarded in the same
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manner? hypocrisy. this from christine. how many death threats do your children get on a daily basis? i'm sure the president and his family get plenty this from dave, i'm an nra member and support them but i think they're a bit tone deaf. they're right that guarding the schools would have been the only solution for school shootings, but they should support better background checks. >> sexy guys needed on the field. a new book by former red sox manager terry francona says team owners are way too focused on who's sexy, you know, like derek jeter and justin verlander. we'll discuss next. you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb.
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while we wait for the next shoe to drop in the lance armstrong story, there's some concern about dropping cycling from the olympics. there's some question whether armstrong could name some top cyc cyc cyclers in connection with the doping issue. we could say look, you clearly got a problem, give you four
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years, eight years to sort it out. when you think you're ready to come back, we'll see if it's a good idea to put you back on the program that from dick pound. a fan is suing the spurs for sending star players home before the team took on the heat in miami in november. coach gregg popovich wanted to rest four key players since the team was playing its fourth game in five games. according to espn the class action suit claims fans suffered economic damage for paying premium price for a ticket that should not have cost as much. cam newton was won and done at auburn, now he plans on spending more time on campus. the carolinas panthers quarterback who makes like $22 million a year, returned to the university this week to enroll in classes. he'll work during his off season to get a sociology degree. who doesn't like a hottie on the baseball field, especially if you're a team owner? terry francona is revealing
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behind the scenes details of his time as manager of the boston red sox, in a new book called "francona the red sox years." it shows a divide between team owners and francona. then theo epstein is quoted as saying they told us we didn't have any marketable players. we need some sexy guys that own's message led to the red sox acquiring carl crawford and adrian gonzalez for a total of 296 million bucks. hotties, sure. but both players were traded last season. we don't make this up. can't wait to read the books. "usa today" reporting on a wide disparity on how colleges treat athletes compared to other students. public universities competing in dis 1 sports spend as much as sake times more per athlete than
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than spend to educate other students. between 2005 the next hour of newsroom" starts now. stories we're watching now. a fiery explosion pierces the london fog and debris from an exploding helicopter showers commuters below. lance armstrong may confess to armstrong but that won't cut it with anti-doping officials. they want much, much more. walmart going after american goodwill, promising to boost spending on u.s. products by 50%. hundreds of thousands are expected to visit washington for the presidential inauguration. many with smartphones in hand, now the rush is on to keep everyone connected.
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"cnn newsroom" starts right now. good morning. thank you very much for joining us. i'm carol costello. we start this hour talking about a major announcement from president obama and the vice president, joe biden. next hour they will unveil their plan to fight gun violence in america. and they'll be joined by several families of newtown shooting victims and children who wrote letters about gun violence. here's what we're experting. according to an official familiar with the situation the president will press for a ban on high capacity magazines and assault weapons, push for universal background checks and request funds be made available to treat mental illness and enhance school safety. dan lothian joins us now. the nra is on the attack before they have seen the plan. >> it's a controversial ad the
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nra has released. it's not only going after the president and suggesting he's an elitist, but also going after the first daughters. it is an ad that is clearly aimed at sort of defending their position, which is they believe as the president looks to have these two tracks, one put pressure on congress to pass some of this -- these regulations, but also for the president to do things on his own, there's this concern that perhaps their second amendment rights might be impacted. so they come out with this ad. take a listen. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? mr. obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. protection for their kids, and
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gun-free zones for ours. >> so it's a tough ad running on the sportsman channel on cable network which is aimed at gun owners. in addition to that, the ad will be running on the internet. the pushback coming not only from the nra, but a sheriff out in oregon, in lynn county, who sent a letter to the vice president and then posted it on their agency's facebook page he's saying and promising and threatening that if there are any federal regulations coming from congress or anything that the president does, he will not enforce them if he believe it "offends the constitutional rights of my scitizens." the president is coming out with his plan but there's a lot of push back from people across the country who have big concerns. >> definitely so. dan lothian reporting live from
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the white house. new york state is the first state to introduce sweeping new gun regulations in the wake of the sandy hook school shooting. governor cuomo signed it into law yesterday. it expands the ban on assault weapons, limits gun magazine size from 7 rounds down from 10, and includes provisions to keep guns away from the mentally ill. experts say the laws are mainly cosmetic. now to london, and this morning's spectacular and horrifying helicopter crash in the heart of the city. the chopper hit a construction crane high atop a building surrounded in fog. the flaming wreckage rained down on rush hour traffic below. zain verjee is in london with the latest details. that crane is still dangling, right? >> that's actually the main issue right now, carol. what the police are saying is that it's dangling, unstable.
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police cordoned off the area and said please stay away. remember hurricane sandy in new york city and all the drama around that crane? it's the same thing going on here right now in central london. what they're doing is talking to specialists and trying to figure out how soon, how safely they can actually take apart the crane and take it away. and just allow people who have been evacuated from homes and businesses that have had to shut down to go back to normal. >> the location of this accident, it immediately triggered concerns of terrorism. why? >> because -- i don't know if you saw the movie "sky fall" but in all the bond movies, vauxhall and mi6 is a central part of it. in the movie there's a part of the scene where part of the building bursts into flames, that's right on the thames river. in the beginning it was thought maybe it has something to do
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with mi6. that was ruled out quickly. it is also in an area called vauxhall. this is a major commuting thoroughfare. think of it like a penn station, you know, vauxhall that's there, and overland trains, the whole underground network. thousands of people coming in from all around the area into central london. so, people were just stuck. many of them decided to walk to work. >> zain verjee reporting live from london this morning. also this morning, new concerns for the airliner that's been billed as the future of air travel. just hours after the new 787 was forced to make an emergency landing, japan's major airlines grounded their entire fleet. that's half of the 50 dreamliners in service all around the world in today's incident the crew reported battery problems and the smell of burning. it's the late northwest a series of incidents. those concerns already prompted
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u.s. and japanese officials to perform their own safety reviews. the problems have included a battery fire, a brake fire and two fuel leaks. so what do you make of all these incidents, mary? >> now it's serious, there's smoke that occurs in the cockpit almost every week at some point, but for japan airlines to say they now lost confidence is very, very serious. >> just to be clear, this dreamliner was the future of airplanes. it's even made of different materials than your normal plane. >> yes, it is. not just materials, not just that it has composite in it, but that it has a lithium battery and other developments that have not been in other planes before. i look for the lithium battery, electrical fires and smoke to be the biggest issue now. >> i think many people are
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thinking they're having all of these problems. why weren't these bugs worked out before this plane was put in use? >> certainly whenever you have smoke and fire, it's an issue. but new model airlines have this kind of a period in which they have to work out the bugs for about 18 months to two years. but at this point, with the emergency evacuation, one fire in the electrical bay, and now this causing the emergency evacuation, this is very serious and it's crunch time for boeing. >> i ask you that because some people say boeing rushed this plane into service. boeing dismissing those concerns. but you do wonder. >> well, they were rushing because they were behind schedule. at first it looked like it was the same growing pains they had with the 777, now it's gone a bit beyond that. for japan airlines and ama to be questioning them, they're good solid boeing users, so it's
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serious. >> a final question for you, i'll ask you a business question. bowing is a big american company, how could this damage this brand, this company? >> well, it will for a short run. in the long run they will recover. in the short run it's very serious for them, given that these are two flying customers of boeing. >> mary schiavo, thank you for joining us. lance armstrong, whistle-blower? he could implicate others in a wide-ranging doping problem and one ioc member, that's a member of the olympic committee says armstrong's doping could maybe lead to cycling being dropped from the olympics. ♪ [ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪
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[ engine revs ] ♪ [ engine revs ] music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make meone happy.♪.♪it's so e ♪make just one heart to heart you - you sing to♪ ♪one smile that cheers you ♪one face that lights when it nears you.♪ ♪and you will be happy too.
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12 minutes past the hour. a bronx woman is indicted and accused of running a scam tied to the newtown massacre. noell alba posed as an aunt of a child killed at sandy hook and then solicited funds for a funeral fund. the u.s. house of representatives approves $51 billion to help super storm sandy victims. the money will repair flood-damaged public infrastructure including transit
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systems in new york and new jersey, and also provide cash grants to storm victims. the bill now heads to the senate. the obama administration launched whitehousepetitions.gov in 2008, the site jumped to 225,000 for new petitions. the administration says the problem is a big one and it means people are exercising their -- actually it's good because people are exercising their first amendment rights. this just in to cnn, the livestrong foundation released a statement in response to media inquiries regarding the cyclist's interview with oprah winfrey. armstrong visited with
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livestrong staff before he taped that interview. armstrong expressed his regret for the stress the team suffered in recent years as a result of the controversy surrounding his cycling career. he asked that they stay focused on serving people affected by cancer, something our team has always done excellently and will continue to do so. we feel confident and optimistic about the foundation's future and welcome an end to speculation. oprah winfrey's interview with armstrong may be the first stage in the cyclist's efforts to come clean. in doing that armstrong may wind up dirtying others. the "new york times" is indicating armstrong may tell on other officials, and that may effect the olympic status of cycling. dan, you wrote a piece on this. you wrote that oprah was just a small part of a much larger plan that concerns armstrong.
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explain what you meant. >> a lot of people were trying to figure out why now, after denying it for so many years, after denying it for the last few months. it seems like the oprah interview is the first part, the public apology and a public admission of armstrong try tock a w trying to be a whistle-blower saying there's much bigger fish, i think it's just he's a competition junkie and he can't lose. >> all the reports i read paint armstrong as the leader of this big secret organization to dope his teammates and himself. what are you saying? >> i agree. you are basing it on reports and what everyone else who has been on his teams for how many years said he was the ringleader of this. you have to decide whether you want to believe lance armstrong who says he was one of the guys doing what other people were telling him or believe everyone else who has now implicated him.
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it's hard to trust them because it took them years to come out and admit to it. it seems to be that we have to trust people after they're caught. armstrong included. it's difficult for the average person to know who to trust. >> this idea that the olympics could do away with cycling. do you think that's true? >> i think dick pound is looking for his pound of flesh. everybody wants a part of this. pound and usada and wada, these organizations based to eradicate drug use in sports, this is their big whale. lance armstrong is the big of the story in drugs, at least in international sports. if you can be a part of this, of course they'll hop on top of this. if armstrong is admitting to it and says he will implicate people who run the sport of cycling, the ioc will get their money's worth on this, too. i don't know if it will come to
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that. it depends on what armstrong says and if the federal government and usada listens to him. >> it would be a shame if that happens. all these people who train so hard for the olympics could have paid for something they have never done. >> the question is how many of them were clean? it's been proven, if you look at the tour de france races that armstrong won, many of the people who shared the podium with him have been caught being dirty or using drugs. so it's a sport where there is a big underbelly to it. >> dan, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. eastern, we'll have a half hour special on why we cheat. we will look at the many cheaters we've experienced over the years, barry bonds, general
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now is your chance to talkback on one of the big stories of the day. is the nra leadership on target or out of touch?
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personal now. a new nra web ad makes no bones about it. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? mr. obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he's just another elitest hypocrite when it comes to the fair share of security. >> normally the president's kids are off target, but when it comes to nra rights nothing is sacred. this ad is just the start. a response to the president's reluctance to put armed guards in every school. >> i'm skeptical that the only answer is put more guns in schools. and i think the vast mority of the person people are skeptical
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that that will somehow solve our problem. >> by saying that president obama opened the door to the nra's latest salvo. if our president's kids are protected by armed guards, why aren't yours? from the "new york post," robert george, he tweets, obama is so elitist, never get stopped and frisked despite using drones to kill americans. and obama is so elitist, planes can't fly over the white house, but the condo board won't let me install a rocket launcher on my roof. but some say the nra's ad is effective. it rallies members. and more importantly the ad supports an issue that most americans agree with, armed guards in schools, and it creates plenty of buzz. still, most americans don't like the nra's tactics in a "washington post"/abc news poll taken before the new ad, only 36% have a favorable impression of the nra's leadership. talkback question today, is the
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nra leadership on target or out of touch? facebook.com/carolcnn or tweet me @carolcnn r nshgs nshgs@caro. and tomorrow we will look at cheating in the talkback. we want you to weigh in on a special talkback tomorrow afternoon. facebook.com/carolcnn. ♪ ♪
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president obama set to unveil his recommendations for gun violence in america in just about a half hour. the state of new york is already taking the lead. yesterday the governor signed into law sweeping reforms making new york state the first state to response to the sandy hook school shooting with legislation. included in the law, an expansion of the ban on assault rifles, gun magazines will now be limited to seven rounds down from ten. and it includes provisions to keep guns away from the mentally ill. how does the new york law change things? >> it broadens existing reporting obligations. some psychiatrists are saying it's overreaching and could be count productive. the new law requires mental health professionals to report if an individual they're treating is likely to engage in
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conduct that will cause serious harm to themselves or others. law enforcement could be notified. that person's gun will be taken away. their names would be added ede state database. the psychiatrist says there is already a database for those who need to be hospitalized, he feels this will be too broad, and that a person who may harm themselves may have to be reported. state lawmakers believe this law is necessary, the psychiatrist we talked to worries about the breach of confidentiality and the unintended consequences. >> my concern about the legislation is when it becomes known that mental health professionals have this very broad reporting obligation, that patients will be less likely to seek treatment.
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and if they seek treatment when they're in the room they'll be less likely to describe honestly their ideation of hurting themselves or their thoughts of hurting other people. >> when we look at what happened in newtown, we have to err on the side of public safety. our job is to serve and to protect. that's what we're doing here. >> now, state lawmakers are saying they're not only focusing on mass killings what en they we this bill but also street violence. >> what will the penalties be if the mental health professionals don't follow the law? >> it says this would be a good-faith decision on whether to report, it would not be a basis for a criminal or civil liability for not reporting. but the psychiatrist we spoke to said he is getting calls from his peers saying this language is vague and they don't know
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exactly what this means yet. it's something they're looking into. >> mary snow reporting live from new york city. the debate around the phrase gun control is a heated one. another set of words, executive action, also sparking quite a bit of controversy. in texas one republican congressman is threatening to impeach president obama for any efforts he tries to take on his own. you know, as far as gun control is concerned. and the former attorney general for president reagan, edwin meese, in an interview with news max, meese says impeachment is possible. >> it would not be legal, it would not be constitutional, and indeed if he tried to override the second amendment in any way, i believe it would be an impeachable offense. >> on another front, the nra has unveiled a new ad. we've been talking a lot about that ad this morning. it labels the president a hypocrite. listen. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? then why is he skeptical about
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putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school? mr. obama -- >> that clip is posted on a website called standandfight. an nra spokesman says stand and fight sums up what americans need to do when it comes to our second amendment freedom. joining us now is jason johnson, and republican strategist ron bonjean. jason, i want to get your thoughts on this ad. it's powerfupowerful. >> it's powerful and ridiculous. look, the president's children should always be off limits in any sort of political discussion. and the idea that them get prognosis tekted is in some way an indicator of him not caring about other children is
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ridiculous. but it is the nra, and i don't think it fur thers the debate a all and lowers it to name calling. >> ron, do you think it's ridiculous? >> i think it is probably over the top but extremely effective. people are already talking about it. they're trying to get an effort going regarding protection in schools, having, you know, armed guards in schools. do i think that's possible? the money isn't there for it. but the ad itself is driving news on it. and, yes, it is quite aggressive, but it is effective. everybody is talking about it right now. >> a lot of free advertising here on cnn, i got to admit to that. the ad doesn't just target president obama now. take a look at some other stars. >> mr. obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. but he's just another elitist
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hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. >> you see there's mayor bloomberg, nbc anchor, david gregory, and senator dianne feinstein. so, they're tapping into that, too, because many people think that the media is one-sided on this issue, jason. >> didn't we do this for the last two years? the election is over. the whole barack obama is part of this elitists is a dead argument. it doesn't move things forward. what the nra should be talking about is let's make sure people have to be licensed properly to have their guns. make sure people know how to use a gun if someone comes into their home. these ads and attacks raises money, gets people talking, and it doesn't help the nra's reputation with the public. >> ron, jason has a point. this could create a backlash. a "washington post" poll shows
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44% have an unfavorable view of the nra's leadership. >> i don't think that matters to the nra. what their goal is is to protect gun rights, the rights of the second amendment. they're going to do everything possible to make sure that happens. you know, you have republicans and democrats joining together. that will end up joining together to fight president obama's proposals. you have red state senators in the senate, harry reid extremely cool to this proposal as well as pat leahy, a democrat who will take his time and look this over. i think that this is going to end up being dead on arrival in congress. they're going to get very little done here. the only thing you'll see is executive action. >> but the thing is, if you step back and you look at what the american people want, there's a separate "washington post" poll that shows the majority of americans support bans on assault weapons, limiting
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assault weapon clips, and background checks at gun shows. these are the things that president obama will suggest today it has nothing to do with taking second amendment rights away. >> the people also want the economy to be taken care of first, spending to be taken care of first before you get to these issues. the devil is in the details here. when you talk about an assault weapons ban, what does that mean? when you're talking about magazine clip restrictions, does that mean if you go from ten bullets to seven bullets, will somebody go out and buy two, three guns to replace the problem? they have to look at the issue here. not only that, we've been -- there's a focus now on mental health. and what does that mean? does that mean health privacy right also come into play here as well? >> jason? >> the american public expects the president to be able to do two jobs at once.
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he can pat his head and rub his tummy. he can work on the economy and do something about gun violence. i don't think americans wanted to sit by. they want background checks. they want their children to be safe and keep their gun rights, too. all of that can be done with commonsense proposals, making sure people have their guns registered one way or the other. a lot of republican s and conservative democrats are standing in front of that because they want to make money with the gun industry instead of caring what the american people want. >> thank you so much for the interesting conversation. is walmart's $50 billion pledge to build american-made products just bait and switch? some say it's a ploy to make you forget that the giant retailer also sells assault rifles. . uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one!
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this is a strange story with a happy ending story of the day. in portland oregon, a woman at 3:45 a.m. in the morning became trapped between a building and a wall. she fell in that tiny space and was trapped. a passerby heard her cries for help and rescue workers had to pull her out. evidently she was so stuck she was having trouble breathing. she's mighty happy to be out free and it appears she'll be okay. see? there's your weird story with a happy ening stoding story of th morning. a member of the board of
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supervisors of san francisco wants to introduce legislation early next week to rename the airpo airport. starting this weekend, all presidential vehicle also have brand new license plates. they'll be switch to the standard d.c. plates that read no taxation without representation. the plates are a not so subtle form of protest for those in the district of columbia since they don't have a votie in congress. walmart putting its money where its mouth is. the retailer says it will spend $50 billion over the next ten years on buying american made products. but critics say the company is pulling a fast one trying to distract people from the weapons it sells. let's talk about the timing. >> it is interesting timing. the company has been taking heat
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over the assault weapons this sell. there was that dust up over whether or not they would attend the meeting at the white house last week. all of a sunday they announce this plan to hire veterans, now this plan to buy american products. sure, it is curious, especially since walmart got heat for selling too many products that were made in countries like china. we spoke to a director who points out we've actually seen this one before. >> walmart has been a major part of the problem the last couple of decades. in the mid '80s walmart announced a big made in america campaign saying they would bring jobs back. it proved to be a pr stunt. at the same time they were citi citing specific examples of products in the united states and they were continuing to off-shore. >> he said 80% of walmart suppliers are based in china,
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walmart disputes that number, it says the items grown or sourced in the u.s. account for two-thirds of its goods in the stores. >> thanks. we'll be right back. to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪ ...people noticed. ♪ the all-new cadillac ats -- 2013 north american car of the year. ♪ for a limited time, take advantage of this exceptional offer on the all-new cadillac ats.
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in just about an hour, we'll take you live to the white house, that's where president obama and vice president biden are expected to unveil the administration's plan to fight gun violence. we're told they will be joined by several families who lost relatives in the mass shooting at sandy hook elementary school. there will also be children surrounding the president who have written letters to the white house about gun violence. let's go to the white house now and check in with dan lothian. what do we expect the president
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to said? >> reporter: aides say the president will roll out a comprehensive approach to cut back on gun violence. according to sources familiar with what the president will be laying out today, he will look to ban assault weapons, to ban those high capacity magazines with more than ten rounds. now, they believe this is something that could impact the gunm gunmen gunman's timetable in terms of how many shots can be fired off. pushing for universal background checks. the president wants to see all sales, whether it's private sales, whether it's gun shows, that people involved in the transactions need to have background checks on their mental health and also their criminal record as well. then a request for funds be made available to treat those with
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mental illness and used to enhance school safety. in addition to that, the president will be rolling out a series of other efforts that he -- or measures that he hopes to do on his own through executive action. we'll hear more about that when the president makes his remarks today. clearly, though, there's been a lot of pushback from the nra and other gun rights groups. they're very concerned about what the president is putting out there and what potentially could go through congress and how that will impact their second amendment rights. >> all right. dan lothian reporting live from the white house. the president expected to speak in a half hour. a little more than an hour, i should say. new york state is the first state to introduce sweeping new gun regulations in the wake of the sandy hook school shootings. governor andrew cuomo signed it into law yesterday after getting bipartisan support. the laws in new york now expand the ban on assault weapons, limits gun magazine size to seven rounds down from ten and
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includes provisions to keep guns away from the mentally ill. experts say the new laws are largely cosmetic because the state already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. we don't think the president will go as far as new york state did, but we don't know. we know any hint of banning any kind of weapons has caused a sort of national hysteria. at least that's what gun control advocates would call it. in lynn county, oregon, the sheriff is refusing to enforce any of the president's gun laws, even though there are no new gun laws in place now. he even wrote a letter about it to vice president biden. some gun rights advocates a s suggesting guns too have prevented everything from the holocaust to slavery and there are even comments from edwin meese. >> would not be legal. it would not be constitutional. if he tried to override the second amendment in any way, i believe it would be an impeachable offense. >> "time" magazine will tackle
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the gun issue this week. it's cover, you see it there, "gunslingers." joining me is teditor of the "time" magazine. let's put up the magazine. it's entitled "gunfighters." >> i think the time is right. the obama administration has decided to play a long ground game here, and they decided the way to combat the nnra and more emotional outbursts is learning from the last two elections where the obama administration avoided the gun issue as a third rail. but looking back at the way they were able to get grassroot support, getting small donors a consistent ground game of outreach and belief in change, they think they have a potent weapon against the nra.
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the nra participated in this story. so if they saw the cover, they would have to acknowledge they're up against some f formidable foes. >> they really are fighting back through many means. the thing is there's nothing particularly extreme about what president obama is going to present later this afternoon. why do you think there's all this hysteria? >> i think the obama administration is being realistic. they're not overreaching. they're well armed to use a phrase, against the charges that there's an executive override of the second amendment or that the government is coming for your guns. that's really not the case. so they're not making that argument. they even backed off the assault weapon provisions. they're trying to make gains where they can make gains because they believe there's a silent majority out there who have said enough is enough. like what they learned from the last election, through
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consistent pressure and saying we need to get out the votes on this, mothers and fathers, the people for whom this is not necessarily the hot button issue but a swing issue, they can get people who never stood up before to say to their elected congressmen that we care about this issue now. this is to make sure these people are not re-elected. >> mike bloomberg who is have rich and powerful man himself, in his story he comes out and says the nra is as powerful as we allow the nra to be. going back to the election, everybody said there was no way to fight, that the democrats could fight back by the coke brothers or sheldon adelson, and all of this monetary power brought to bear. the ground game election proved that to be false which is one of the reasons that gabby giffords
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and biden are quite optimistic that they can get something done here because the myth these days they say, of the nra almost precedes itself because there's a very loyal constituency who cares passionately about this issue. but there's a much broader segment to the american population, they believe, that's finally willing to stand up and say we don't agree with what the nra is saying or how powerful they've become. >> jim frederick with "time" magazine, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.
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tunnel of doom during president obama's first inauguration. it won't be known that this time. several hundred people got stuck under the 3rd street tunnel. on monday, obama's second inauguration, to avoid problems that tunnel will be closed to pedestrians. a smaller crowd is expected to attend the swearing in this year, too and that will help. it will still take a lot of work to accommodate the hundreds of thousands who are expected to show up in washington for the president's inauguration, and they say they all want to stay connected. that could be a problem. >> i barack hussein obama solemnly swear -- >> reporter: it's the picture everyone will want to capture. president obama's swearing in for a second term and cell phone providers are gearing up for those coming with cameras and smartphones in hand. >> everybody wants to post pictures so that their family can see that they were here. people want to check the
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weather. people want to check how the transit system is doing. all of those capabilities are done through apps on their smartphones or tablets. >> will be a smaller crowd than the historic 1.8 million people who watched his first inauguration, buts will descend capital on monday. if you are among here during the inauguration, try posting yourg photos on facebook, it will be slow going. >> everybody wants to talk, send pictures and text messages. >> reporter: cell phone providers are hoping to prevent disrpuptions like four years ag and are putting towers around the national mall to handle the crowd. >> since the last inauguration we have built additional permanent sites that serve this area, we have added capacity to existing cell sites, and then we
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have added temporary locations like we have here. >> reporter: service providers also put up temporary towers at other big events, like the super bowl and nascar races. the extra cell towers also ensure communication for emergency responders. at any big event, experts recommend not making phone calls if possible, leaving frequencies open for 911 calls. but if you absolutely wanted to share the excitement -- >> text is the best thing. that doesn't take up much bandwidth. it can go very quickly and you will get a response. >> reporter: there's a new smartphone app providing key information about road closures, inaugural events and even port-a potty locations. service providers recommend taking all the pictures and videos you want, but upload them once you get back home.
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>> sandra, are you standing near the purple tunnel of doom? >> i am, carol. they really dressed up the national mall. you can look at the temporary cell towers behind me. they're not attractive but hopefully they'll keep people connected. that's a worry here. if nearly 1 million people all click and send at the same time, there could still be service problems, even though there's extra resources here on the national mall. so service providers again are saying that just use text, try to stay off your phone, upload that material, all the photos and stuff at home, not here all at once when you're crowded on the national mall. they spent the last four years to beef up the infrastructure here, spending more than $1 million on extra repeaters, bringing in these cell towers to keep people connected. >> i'm trying to imagine 1 million people clicking at the same time.
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that would be a cool experiment. the president is scheduled to announce his gun control recommendations in just about an hour. wolf blitzer will anchor our special coverage at 11:45 eastern time. see, i figured low testosterone would decrease my sex drive... but when i started losing energy and became moody... that's when i had an honest conversation with my doctor. we discussed all the symptoms... then he gave me some blood tests. showed it was low t. that's it. it was a number -- not just me. [ male announcer ] today, mewith l t have androgel 1.62% (testosterone gel). the #1 prescribed topical testosterone replacement therapy, increases testosterone when used daily. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or signs in a woman, which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer
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